Do you watch the NBA Finals, NHL Stanley Cup Final, and the Super Bowl?

I know people who don't watch the Super Bowl. For years, I've kinown people who go to Super Bowl parties who say they don't watch the game or even care. When I was living in an apartment, I always found Super Bowl Sunday a great time to beat laundromat crowds because even people who didn't care but were socially committed to it. I know people who don't watch the NBA finals including some who stop watching the NBA playoffs when their team is elimnated.

I don't know many people who watch hockey, and I don't know anyone who doesn't watch hockey duruing the season who watches the Stanley Cup finals. I know a lot of people who don't watch the World Series, although this year in Northern California I know people who couldn't be bothered with baseball during the season watching the World Series.

Baseball is much bigger than basketball in cities with both baseball and basketball. Look at the difference between the Bulls' celebrations in the 1990s and the White Sox celebration in the next decade. And we are told that the celebration over the Cubs would have been exponentially bigger. I can't imagine the celebration for a Warriors championship comparing to what is going on today in San Francisco. Still, I was at a restaurant a couple of years ago, where a man was complaining that the television was tuened to a baseball game instead of the NFL draft. I can't imagine watching any sport's draft coverage unless I was getting paid to do so or found myself in some sort of invalid or hostage situation where I as unable to leave or change the channel.

Football is bigger than baseball. And football has done a better job of marketing its sport, The league markets the league. Teams share revenues. The league encourages gambling to make the game interesting to people who ordinarily wouldn't find the game interesting. The league will fine a San Francisco football player for wearing a Giants hat during a news conference because the league is about the concept that only the league exists. I don't think ESPN showing the Yankees and Red Sox is relevant to the discussion because I think baseball is more relevant than ESPN. Fewer people grow up playing baseball. Other sports are easier to play. Video games are even easier, and football's controlled violence (which will be the fall of the sport eventually) translates well to video games.

I do think it's silly to play Saturday and Sunday World Series games at night in late October. If you're going to give Fox the rights to the World Series, require Fox to show the weekend games during the day. It isn't just a matter of games being broadcast when the kids are still up. You are going to get better weather during the day than you get at